There is something particularly offensive about someone who makes money off oil money royalty payments attacking young people for caring about the future of the planet and the health and well-being of county residents. As some of the many student volunteers who dedicated hundreds of hours in April to collecting signatures to qualify Measure P for the ballot, we wish to correct statements in local media implying signature gathering was a paid effort.

Let’s make this about the facts of Measure P, not a series of personal attacks on volunteers and a slew of false information.

Unlike the oil companies that have millions of dollars to wage an opposition campaign against Measure P, the blue-shirted Santa Barbara County Water Guardians, of which we are a part, is a volunteer, grassroots organization of young and old, wealthy and poor, and people who work in a variety of industries. Our measure would shut down future high intensity oil operations that are particularly energy and water intensive, not existing projects employing local families and supplying current county revenues.

Why did students take hours away from studying for midterms to go door-to-door collecting signatures? It wasn’t just for the cause. It was because without sufficient and clean water, without making the smart switch to renewable energy, without a livable planet, our educations won’t be very useful.

We’d like a Santa Barbara County with water, and water that is clean, where big industry can’t fool people into thinking community revenues and jobs are dependent on one industry’s profits, and where people have safe and long-term jobs building the renewable energy infrastructure of the future.

We care about our futures, and that is why we have and will continue to volunteer our time to support Measure P.

Corrie Ellis, Arlo Bender-Simon, Zachary Rosenblatt, Timothy Jacobs, Katelynn Bishop, Summer Gray, Alex Favacho, Jay Brooks, Zoe Brown, AJ Adams, Lindsey Tavares, Max Golding, and Rob Holland sign this letter, all of whom are UCSB and SBCC students and recent graduates.

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